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F. San has seen it all in Emeter’s basketball.
The 36-year-old Spaniard has won two European Championships (one in Lithuania in 2011), Olympic silver with the Spanish national team, twice Champion of Spain with the Baskonia and Valencia clubs, and once MVP of the Spanish Championships.
The 199 cm tall basketball player himself played many times against the Lithuanian national team and against Lithuanian clubs: “Žalgiris” and Vilnius “Rytas”.
But such a basketball wolf is surprised by this year’s “Žalgiris”, who said goodbye to coach Šarūnas Jasikevičius and his assistants, several important players (E.Ulanov, KCRivers, Z.LeDay, J.Landale), but still started the Euroleague season with four wins. in succession.
“This team started the season very well,” superdeporte.es told F. San Emeteris about “Žalgiris”. – They are leaders, they have won everything, despite the fact that it seemed that they will be somewhat weaker in the Euroleague this year due to the departure of people.
It’s always difficult to play in Kaunas, but last year we managed to win there, so we will try to become the first team to beat them this year, although we know it will be very difficult.
Rokas Lukoševičius / 15min photo / The first match of the European Union in Kaunas: Kaunas “Žalgiris” – Istanbul “Anadolu Efes”
Last season, Valencia scored their first win on matchday twelfth of the Euroleague away tournament, when they beat Žalgiris in Kaunas by 86:82, and then fell behind in a series of defeats.
But both teams have changed since those games.
Not only at Žalgiris, but also at Valencia, there are new people who still haven’t gotten used to the game that coach Jaume Ponsarnau is developing.
Derrick Williams, Nikola Kaliničius, Martin Hermansson, Klemen Prepeličius have important roles, but they are still merging and Valencia’s results are increasing.
Although in the Euroleague Valencian basketball players won two of the three games (the match against Zenit was postponed), in the Spanish league they only won two of the five games.
“There is still a lot of instability. We also saw very good moments, good basketball, where the team plays physically, like in Madrid (Valencia won 93:77). There were other games in which we took the break in the lead, but we couldn’t answer to the physicality of the rivals in the third quarter, “said F. San Emeterio, who highlighted the matches with the Malaga and Sevilla clubs in the Spanish league.
Euroleague.net nuotr./ FuenteValencia “
F. San Emeterio, who played for Baskonia in 2008-2015 and has been playing for Valencia for five years, recalled that the team’s game had stalled at the start of the season for the last two. You think it takes time to match the strings.
“The philosophy of Jaume (coach Jaume Ponsarnau) is to play conceptually, leaving the player free. That freedom often leads to mistakes, especially at the beginning of the season ”, explained F. San Emeterio.
His contribution is no longer as significant as in his best moment, when he added 19 points each in Vitoria and was chosen for the five best players in the Euroleague.
Even in 2019, they scored more than 10 points each and helped Valencia win the European Cup, having previously eliminated Vilnius Morning in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
This season, the brilliant leader of Valencia is once again the Montenegrin Bojanas Dubljevičius, who accumulates 14.3 points and bounces 5 balls in the Euroleague, and F. San Emeterio has an average of 6 points.
Getty Images / Euroleague.net nuotr./Fernando San Emeterio
The veteran of Spanish basketball is convinced that this season for the “oranges” can be more successful than last, despite the unstable results of the fall.
“You have to stay calm, don’t panic,” Saint Emeter said. “We are talking bad about the team, although we are 2-1 in the Euroleague.”
Last week, Valencia were still happy with the 3-1 result, as it included a technical victory of 20: 0 against Zenit Saint Petersburg, when the Russian team did not attend the game due to the high number of infections. But then the Euroleague changed the rule and decided to celebrate the lost matches later.
“It is strange. But what is not strange about 2020? – considered Mr. San Emeter. – Well, it’s fine. We will finally play those matches. I understand that in competitions like the Euroleague, a result of 20: 0 does not give beauty, but the truth is that if you set a rule, you must follow it. And if you change in the middle of a tournament, it’s strange and ugly. But in the end we are players, we like to play, compete and we will continue to do so “.
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